updated 03:22 pm EDT, Wed October 10, 2012

Security contest rewards hacker with cash, Chromebook

Google has patched an exploit in Chrome less than 24 hours after it was disclosed at a hacker conference. The Pwnium 2 competition at Hack in the Box 2012 saw a single security flaw being discovered, which earned a hacker going by the name "Pinkie Pie" a free Chromebook and $60,000, the highest reward level in the contest.

A new version of Chrome for Windows, Mac, and Linux was announced today alongside a patch for the flaw. The official changelog for version 22.0.1229.94 contains a single item, listing the discovered hole, the prize level, and a credit to the hacker.

In this second Pwnium contest, Google put $2 million in total potential prize money on the line for anyone finding security issues. The first contest in March saw it hand $60,000 each to Pinkie Pie and Sergey Glazunov before quickly patching the flaws.

The Pwnium contest was created due to Google's non-participation from the Pwn2Own contest. As the rules this year did not require participants to disclose fully the exploits, Google withdrew and started its own competition. [viaThe Next Web]